Sarah Cotta

Sarah Wharton, daughter of Richard Wharton (died 1689) and Sarah Higginson, his second wife (died 1676), was born on August 7, 1671 at Boston. She married on May 4, 1698 at Boston to John Cotta (son of John Cotta and Mary Moore) who died June 29, 1728, at Boston.

Their son John died September 13, 1703, at Boston.

notes

From "Road to Failure" Chapter One of The Road to the Revolutionary War: — Difficult Beginnings by John Taylor (copyright 2011)

“ … your sister Wharton’s two daughters … are like to continue as ancient maids … Sarah being 25 or 26 years old.”

Early settlers were a diverse group. Nowhere is this better shown than with the Wharton family. The father incredibly rich, the daughters old maids. Sarah and Bethia were daughters of Richard Wharton, a man who was determined to find fame and fortune in the New World. But the English colonial system was fickle and problematic. He tried several devices to advance his case including Massachusetts courts and the London elite. When one of the London power elite changed sides, he went back to garner support from another corner. His efforts wore him out. He died in 1689. Sarah and Bethia were able to support themselves with a small shop in Boston. Not all immigrants were as unlucky as Richard Wharton, or as lucky as Sarah and Bethia. ....

---

Sarah and her sister Bethiah were provided for by their mother's father, Rev. John Higginson, after 1689 and until their marriages. See "Higginson Letters," page 205

From http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2014-10/...

I notice that John and Sarah Cotta were living in the Cornhill section of Boston in 1722, and that Sarah Cotta was living there by herself in 1728.

http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=00vt8xOPuKDB-LzupK&id=P1...

http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=00vt8xOPuKDB-LzupK&id=P1...

Sarah Wharton and her husband John Cotta of Boston are perhaps most likely to have descendants through their son Richard Cotta who married Margery Orne in Boston (early 1740s) and had Richard, Peter, and Bethiah Cotta.

Eric Nellis & Anne Decker Cecere, eds., _The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor_ (2007), p. 267, shows that Bethia Cotta, sometime of the Almshouse, died May 21, 1772, in Boston, aged 22.

This unfortunate was likely a descendant of the family, as Sarah Wharton, wife of Cotta, had a sister called Bethia or Bethiah.

• Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths 1630-1699 City Document No. 130 Rockwelll & Churchill, City Printers : Boston, 1883.link Sarah of Richard & Sarah Wharton born Aug. 7. [1671]
• Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths, 1630-1699, Volume 9, page 244 Boston City Document 130. 1698
  • John Cotta & Sarah Wharton were married by Mr. James Allen May 4.
  • John Wharton & Sarah Ballentine were married by Mr. James Allen Oct. 14. [at age 14? not possible]
• Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson, Massachusetts Bay Colony of Salem, 1910 page 10-11
• A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England, showing three generations of those who came before May, 1692, on the basis of Farmer's Register. By James Savage. page 494 Richard Wharton, Boston 1661, a very active gent. largely concern. in purch. of lds. as in 1683, the Pegypscot, of 500,000 acres, at the E. and engag. in public good, m. a. 1659, Bethia, d. of William Tyng, and next, 1672, Sarah, d. of Rev. John Higginson of Salem, and had two ds. Sarah and Bethia. Felt, in Geneal. Reg. IX. 339, calls him a lawyer, but perhaps he was only atty. for partic. individ. not a mem. of the profess. Under appointm. as one of the Counc. of Sir Edmund Andros, he thwart. some of his oppress. designs, and went home with others in July 1687 to complain against his measures, and d. in London a. 1690. He left much embarrass. est. and his ds. kept a small shop in Boston. Sarah m. John Cotta, in B. See Higginson Letters in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. VII. 198—
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy -SmartCopy: Jul 21 2016, 23:16:06 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 21 2016, 23:21:25 UTC
• Ancestry Geneology death 01 November 1743
  • Deaths in Boston 1700-1799, NEHGRS
  • Whittmore's Report of City Commissioners, Vol 9